ECT Brings U.S. Tech Platform To Europe, Drops KDS

Expedia Corporate Travel is aiming to win more multinational clients after introducing the same proprietary technology platform to Europe that it operates in the United States. ECT president and CEO Jean-Pierre Remy said the single platform will allow customers to access multinational management information online and in real time for the first time.

Until now, ECT's European platform had been provided by the self-booking tool KDS. ECT had to combine data from the two platforms in its own back office and feed the information to clients offline.

KDS was used by the French online travel agency that ECT bought in 2004 as one of the first stages of its expansion into Europe. ECT rolled out KDS across its other European marketplaces, including the United Kingdom and Germany, but now is confident that it has produced a customized version of its own U.S. platform to meet the needs of clients across the Atlantic.

In addition to globalized reporting, the single platform will give ECT users the same look and feel wherever in the world they log in. However, there remains one major difference: In the United States, ECT uses the Sabre and Worldspan global distribution systems, but in Europe, it will use Amadeus.

"Our average online adoption rate with clients is 85 percent," said Remy. "To achieve that level, we need to nail down a lot of local issues. We have done a lot of work with Amadeus on this and a lot of system configuration to ensure it is working. We have produced many more combinations of fares to ensure we are displaying the most relevant ones to the client." Remy added that the new ECT platform also includes localized content, such as rail.

Remy expects to win larger accounts covering more markets as a result of the platform consolidation. "A travel manager from Boston can now monitor data for all countries in his or her travel program in real time," he said. "Before, that was not possible."

Commenting on the termination of the relationship with ECT, KDS president Yves Weisselberger said: "For us, it is a non-event. We decided this with Expedia two years ago. Expedia has its own technology and our common interests were getting smaller and smaller, especially in the midmarket, where we have become competitors."

Remy said ECT's business is split 60/40 between the United States and Europe. He plans to enter the Asia/Pacific market in 2007.